All I can say is watch out for this MotherF***ker in 2012. As a Florida resident I have seen how he operates, and it scares the shit out of me. Another Bush ? You betcha

God Bush America.

(And they did)

Remember, Jeb is the "smart" Bush.

As for 2012, it actually might be fun to see one of the famous Bush gutter campaigns run against Palin. I kind of doubt wingnuttia would forgive ol' Jebbie if he ran the typical Bush campaign against dear Sarah.

There are, however, a couple of problems here.

Make that three. You can't run the government for eight years with almost total control by spending too much, increasing the debt, and then say we represent fiscal responsibility. You can't call all those who disagree terrorists or cowards and then call for civil cooperation. You can't take away habeus corpus and institute warrentless wiretaps and other searches and then say you're for individual freedoms. You can't vote for bailout after bailout and then start calling for "personal responsibility". You can't scream "seal the borders" and ignor New Orleans after Katrina and then talk about a "big tent". The Republicans have a major credibility problem.

So, is JEB going to just throw his idiot brother under the bus in order to run? Would Barbara approve? Would Daddy think it was prudent?

Jeb won't get to run because his brother was a screwup, even the Republicans aren't that stupid.

It'll be decades (if ever!) before America forgets The Shrubbery Years, but Junior's still trying to be relevant. Funny, I consider him to be more of a redneck than his brother, even if he can utter a sensible sentence. And I already hate what he did to Florida. Between him and Walt Disney I can't say who wrecked the place most.

The party should establish a loyal opposition and "organize ourselves in the form of a shadow government" that would address key issues, providing the public with "a loftier debate about policy" rather than mere partisanship.

This isn't a terrible idea if it forces the Republican politicians in Congress to think about policy rather than just how to attack Democrats. That's been a big problem with Republicans for the last 2 decades - they talk a big game about being the "party of ideas" but it turns out that they really don't have any policy ideas - just talking points to beat Democrats over the head with.

Unfortunately, the Republican bench in Congress holds some of the dumbest rocks in the country. They're "bred" for fighting Democrats, not making policy suggestions or for governing. Let's not forget that for a long time Bill Frist was one of the smartest policy guys they had. In some ways, Republicans have the opposite problem that Democrats have had since the 80s (at least) - for Democrats politics revolves around policy almost to the exclusion of other aspects. Which makes them a lousy opposition party because they're terrible at fighting and kicking and screaming when they don't have the policy reigns to pull on. Republicans are great at dirty fighting, stumping and politicking, but lousy at the idea work and terrible at governing.

Jeb, if he is to have any future, must position himself opposite his brother. Ergo the word "policy."

Thou shall not lance Sarah...

Jennifer: I kind of doubt wingnuttia would forgive ol' Jebbie if he ran the typical Bush campaign against dear Sarah.

I doubt we will ever see a typical republican campaign run against Saint Sarah. The way McCain's people got hushed up is a telltale sign. They were obviously forced to retract their pricks. Something powerful is preventing suppuration. The boil will not ever boil over. Verily I say unto you: Sarah has been anointed. The proof is in the lack of Palin pus and bloodletting. That she campaigned in Georgia for Chamblis is noteworty. I wonder if she laid her hands on him?

Side note: Anybody know where Levi has absconded to? Isn't he supposed to be getting married?

"The party should establish a loyal opposition and "organize ourselves in the form of a shadow government" that would address key issues, providing the public with "a loftier debate about policy" rather than mere partisanship."

This suggestion would require there to be multiple GOP figures each engaging Obama and the Dems on individual issues. It sounds like a great idea, except it flies in the face of the current authoritarian nature of the Republican Party and modern conservatism. You can't have more than one Maximum Leader or the whole cult starts to break apart.

Mike

Funny you should mention it -- this was my reaction to the previous story on the Fairness Doctrine (which was, of course, posted later). Any time Americans for Tax Reform (bankrupt & drown the government) and Concerned Women for America (relic of the old Klan-enabling White Citizens Councils, with a whiff of Jesus Votes Right) get together, you can be sure they'll try to run things and be mightily upset when they can't. That spells Shadow Government. Look for Obama & Co. to be dogged by this as long as they're around. The Bush III wannabe may try his own version, but we'll see how much welcome he finds among the southern nutballs. Alaska is the new capitol of the Confederacy! Apologies to all the good Alaskans, and there are a lot of them.

"He acknowledged Obama's victory, but chalked it up to the Democrat's fundraising advantage, and insisted that Republicans should avoid the temptation to embrace a "Democratic-lite" agenda."

Nice to see that the "smarter Bush brother" is as much a moron as the dumber one. "Fundraising advantage" had nothing to do with it, Jebbie-boy, you got beat because PEOPLE DON'T LIKE YOU.

He acknowledged Obama's victory, but chalked it up to the Democrat's fundraising advantage,

This is basically a tautology. Bush is attempting to minimize Obama's win by attributing it solely to fundraising, but this leaves the question of why did the Democrats have a fundraising advantage in the first place? Because their candidate and policy attracted more people and had a broader base of support. So basically Jeb is chalking up the Democrats' victory to the fact that they were more popular and nore people voted for them -- so yeah, when you take away that, then the GOP would have won....

If we were in a parlimentary system then we would have an understanding of how a "shadow government" works without destabalizing the government. The way I read this, the aim would be more at destabalizing the government and ruining this democracy.

"It is also used as a somewhat pejorative term to denote a government that takes over in the event of a disaster. Guerrillas sometimes have equivalent structures to the present government in hopes that when the guerrilla-group overthrows the present government, the guerrilla-forces will more easily be able to transition from militarist to administrative capacity. Also, the term "shadow government" can be used loosely to refer to a guerrilla-force that controls and administers the majority of the physical area of a country, rendering the official national government significantly less able to administer its policies. Some consider the current strength of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the New People's Army to be to this degree.

In nations with less apparent strife, there are several safeguards in place in the event of a disaster strong enough to disrupt the functioning of the government. The United States has Continuity of Operations Plan, Continuity of Government and the presidential line of succession plans." Wikepedia

Why would someone thing it's a good idea to run a shadow government in our country is beyond belief. Is that why Blackwater still operates?

The party should establish a loyal opposition and "organize ourselves in the form of a shadow government" that would address key issues, providing the public with "a loftier debate about policy" rather than mere partisanship.

Meanwhile, back in real life, the party had eight years to run an actual government that would address key issues and provide the public with a loftier debate about policy rather than mere partisanship, and they failed miserably.

Which means that if the GOP takes Jeb's advice, the two sides will, once again, be playing by different rules.

Republicans haven't acknowledged reality in a long time, so yeah, just more of the same. The shocker would be for Republicans to deal with reality and have alternatives that actually work.

...urged the GOP to avoid becoming "the old white-guy party."

In other words be just as corrupt as the Democrats on illegal migration and initiate a Republican version of the Democrats' Jackpot Voter Breeding Program (JVBP, por sus siglas en ingles).

"You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace," Tancredo said of Miami, according to the Web site WorldNetDaily. "You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country."

They still think there is legitimacy in their party.

Delusional little children, dressed as adults. Talk about the " I'll take my ball and play elsewhere" now its the " I'll start my own government" syndrome.
Will somebody please take their money away from them so they will leave our country and never come back?

PNAC reactivated their web site last month.
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

As one of the original signers of the 'Statement of Principles' of PNAC, Jeb is just carrying forward the war first, Amerikan world domination attitudes of that group.

When the neo-cons no longer have the tool George to give them positions of authority in the DOD and the administration, it is necessary that they again form a 'shadow government' to bring forth the message of how the U.S. should be the world's policeman, savior, and bully all rolled into one.

I guess if you can't get elected to actual government, the next best thing is to make up your own.

Kind of high school, if you ask me.

Can we review 2000 for just a second? The Republican argument went something like: "You can't trust Democrats with Peace and Prosperity and Surpluses. Only Republicans know how to handle that stuff." So what did we get with Republicans. Deficits, two major intractable wars, and a Recession that started in 2007.

Jeb's problem is that conservatism's argument is basically that no matter how much conservtism you apply, it's never enough. Privitize Social Security. Privitize Medicare and Medicaid. Privitize everything! It's not working (it never does, we've tried this for nearly five decades in various countries)? You haven't gone far enough.

The Chicago School of Economics (Friedmanism) postulates that reducing government to zero management of the economy means a hugely growing economy. But every test case they've had shows that the economies shrink as the government involvement is reduced. Now in Calculus when a function approaches zero on the Y axis when approaching zero on the X axis you assume the value of Y is zero when the value of X is zero, even when you can't calculate the exact value at zero. But the Chicago School, even with empirical evidence that reducing Government involvement to zero reduces economic growth potential, still clings to their theory that the curve will go up when you approach zero involvement.

In short, they are doctrinal idiots. But they are the only argument that Jeb Bush has got.

Now Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, they have Populism on their side. Give them the Government and they will impose windfalls taxes on the Oil Companies and sexual mores laws on the rest of us.

Frankly, I'm looking forward to the internal conflicts of the Republican't party over the next four years, especially if Saxby Chambliss LOSES (too much to hope for I know).

And the other is that they have no concept of a "loyal" opposition.

Though he's probably the "best of the Bushes" . . . he's also the "Best of the Worst".

Willllllllllllllllllll we ever be free of this family which has done nothing but lie/cheat/steal their way through out recent history?????????????????????????????????

KEEP DANCING AMERICA, .. .THE PIPER CAN WAIT.